MY EVER DEAR PARENTS,-It is with the greatest difficulty I can communicate to your wants, or even be informed of them. I have requested and will request Doctor Coke, as he is so frequently in England, to know and supply, or order a supply of all your wants. Every act of kindness done to you in England, I shall return to the Doctor when in America; and also repay what he requires. I am in great straits about advising you to come hither. It would be attended with great expense and danger; and should you suffer, by land or water, it would give me great pain. My hands are very full. I am here, and there, and every where, upon the continent. But I should fear nothing so much as your not being devoted to God, or so holy as you ought to be. I frequently pray for you. I want to see you both in heaven; it is but a little, yea, a very little time, and we shall close our concerns here. If at any time you should be shortened, write to the Doctor, and he will supply you, and I will answer to him. If I were not about a great work, and under indispensable obligations to the preachers and people here, chiefly raised up under my ministry, you might hope to see me. I have reason to believe, and that firmly, that the hand of God has been clearly seen in bringing me to, and continuing me in this land, from the first moment to the present. We have opened a house for learning. -So far I am concerned for the present and rising generation. I am in some measure, by a multiplicity of business, constrained to forget my own country, and my father's house.

I am as ever, your affectionate son,

F. ASBURY.

MY DEAR MOTHER,-From the information, I have received, I may fear my venerable father is no more an inhabitant of this earth; you a widow, myself an orphan, with respect to a father. I cannot tell how to advise you in this important change. I dare not forbid your coming to this continent. At present, I have neither health, nor purse, nor inclination, nor confidence, to re-cross the seas. It was there my serious times began. Comparatively, I never knew charge or trouble till I became an inhabitant of the sea; and in the new world. You have washed the saints' feet this forty years; you have entertained strangers, brought up children, and have done some good works. It is a comfort to my soul when I reflect that you have kept the Gospel ministry in your house so many years, whilst, with my small abilities, I have been doing a little to spread the Gospel through sixteen states, any one of them, except two, affording more space than England. I wish you if you do stay, to support the cause of Christ in your house, to the latest hour. my father is taken away, I advise you to take a pious prudent woman to live with you, for company, and consolation. If I should wear my coat, one of the kind, with other parts of apparel, four

If

teen or fifteen months, I will try to remit as heretofore. I have formed no other connection. This might give you some assurance that I am still your son. As to the reward for the troubles you have felt, what compensation could I give. It is pretty well known here that I was born poor, my calling and every thing. We have had many who have risen up from Europe, and in this country, that could not have their gratification, and have cast at me what they could find. I thank my God, I have been able to live up, in some degree, to the dignity and duty of a Christian and a minister. I am exceedingly pleased with the attention Mr. Philips has paid and will pay to you. You have made yourself respectable, and extensive in friends, who, although they cannot give to you, can comfort you. I have been, as you may have heard, afflicted by excessive labours of mind and body. I had to neglect writing, reading, and preaching, for a time. I only attempt to preach on Sabbath days. I have had many ounces of blood taken away. I had to stop and lie by in some precious families, where parents and children, in some measure, supplied your absence. I laid by in Virginia. When you hear the name, you will love it unseen, and say,-"That was where my Frank was sick." I am much mended, and live wholly upon a vegetable diet. I move in a little carriage, being unable to ride upon horseback. My route ought to be three thousand miles a year. I should wish, if a few guineas would procure it, a perfect plain portrait of yourself. O my mother! let us be holy, and watch, and pray, that we may meet in heaven. You have professed religion fifty years, living, feeling religion; a mother you ought to be in Israel. Your numerous friends will hear, and listen, when you die, to know if your last days were peace and triumph! Were you to see me, and the colour of my hair-nearly that of your own. But still God is with me. My soul exults

in God.

As ever, your dear son,

FRANCIS ASBURY.

State of New-York, June 28, 1799. MY VERY DEAR MOTHER,-I have received yours dated in the years 1798 and 1799, both in the same week. Letters coming to me are landed at one end of the continent, when I am at the other, and are sent after me; but before they arrive, I am gone. I am thankful to God that my dear father died in peace; and that my mother yet lives, to serve God, and his ministers and people. I gladly consent to your refusal to come to America. You might find yourself disappointed, as many have done, in coming to this continent. If my way were opened to return, my difficulties would be great, in crossing the seas at this time of general distress of nations,—the sea and the waves roaring, men's hearts failing them for fear of those things which shall come upon the

earth,-when the nations are destroying each other by thousands in a day, if not in an hour. I am satisfied in your living alone, if you have such kind and watchful neighbours. My love and kind respects to them, for their attention to you. The coming of Christ is near, even at the door, when he will establish his kingdom. He is now sweeping the earth, to plant it with righteousness and true holiness. My eyes are weak enough, even with glasses. When I was a child, and would pry into the Bible by twinkling fire-light, you used to say, "Frank, you will spoil your eyes." At that time, I sought the historical letter. I knew not the hidden pure light and life. It is my grief that I cannot preach as heretofore. I am greatly worn out at fifty-five; but it is in a good cause.

I am as ever, your dear son in the Gospel,

FRANCIS ASBURY. My dear friend in America, John Dickins, died with the fever ; but I am spared a little longer.

MY MOST DEARLY BELOVED MOTHER,-I am yet living, with a restoration of health, to continue to labour and travel, night and day. I am, of late, more than ever invigorated, with a revival of religion in various happy parts of our continental field. Whilst war and want prevail [in other places, ] we have peace and religion. I have not time to write at large. I hope to manifest my duty and care, by sending you thirty guineas. You will please to let me know if this supply is sufficient. I am not in cash at present, but trust I shall be in a few weeks.

I remain as ever, your affectionate son,
FRANCIS ASBURY.

THE SOUTHERN SLAVE POPULATION.

REVIEW. [BY THE REV. JAMES O. ANDREW, OF AUGUSTA, GEORGIA.] An Address delivered in Charleston, before the Agricultural Society of South Carolina, at its Anniversary Meeting, on Tuesday the 18th August, 1829, by CHARLES COTESWORTH PINKNEY. Published by order of the Society.

[Ir will be perceived that our correspondent, in the following article, purposely confines himself to that part of Mr. Pinkney's Address which respects the religious instruction of slaves. And whatever difference of feeling or of sentiment may exist among the diversified sections and interests of our country, in relation either to the subject of slavery in the abstract, or to the practicability or utility of any measures having for their object its gradual and

ultimate removal from the face of the nation, we are persuaded that our readers will at least agree that our correspondent's solicitude to effect for the slave population the 'greatest possible benefit,' —their salvation, and at the same time also greatly to meliorate their condition even in a state of slavery, is worthy of all praise. On this point, the precise point which he takes in hand, his appeal is certainly one of great interest and force; and one which we hope will be duly appreciated, and practically sustained, as well by the community in general, as by the church and her ministry in particular. The self-immolation, indeed, amid the 'fogs and death' of the swamps of Carolina and Georgia, to which brother Andrew invites and urges his brethren, in the cause of negro salvation,' ought either to rouse us to sympathy and coöperation, or else forever to close our mouths, if we leave such men to struggle and perish in such a cause, unsustained.]

THE slave population of the southern states occupies a very prominent point of observation in the past and present history of our country, and will, no doubt, in that also of the future. Their number, their increase, their relation to the white population, whether considered in the light of property, or with reference to other and more important interests, all constitute topics of close and watchful attention, and which demand of every thinking man a sober inquiry into their present condition and their future prospects.

We are aware that the subject is one of great delicacy, involving, as it does, feelings and interests of a very important, and in many respects a very peculiar character. We shall therefore endeavour to touch it in such a manner as shall, we trust, be inoffensive to all good citizens. The condition of these people has not indeed been unnoticed by the philanthropists of this country, or of Europe. Many a heart has felt, and many an able pen has given utterance to strong things on this subject; and no doubt many who have spoken of southern slave holders, in terms of strong and sometimes of bitter rebuke, have been entirely honest, and believed they were doing God service. Many efforts have been made to procure the abolition of slavery. The public prints have frequently teemed with bitter invective against southern slave dealers and negro drivers.' The people of the south have been stigmatized as devoid of humanity, and every social and gracious feeling; and when a rhetorical flourish was wanted, our emancipating orators and scribblers have painted a white man of the south, with a boding tempest cloud on his brow, a malignant curse on his tongue, a knotted scourge in his hand, and at his feet a naked, half starved, lacerated and bleeding slave. The same spirit has frequently obtruded itself into our halls of national legislation, engendering the bitterest feelings on both sides, and perhaps at some times more VOL. II.-July, 1831. 27

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seriously threatening the subversion of our happy union, than any other subject in the whole range of congressional squabbling.

If the above statements be correct, it is not at all surprising that similar opinions should affect the church, and that her ministry, and the press (so far as it was under her control, at least in some places) should lend their powerful aid to support a cause which seemed so thoroughly imbued with the spirit of an enlarged philanthropy. The zeal which employed itself in untiring efforts to accomplish the abolition of slavery, and in order to accomplish this was not backward in reviling the whole race of slave holders, has been often repelled with a zeal equally indiscreet; and the heat and smoke arising from these bitter strifes, have frequently prevented either party from noticing one important point in this matter, which is more momentous in its influence on the north and the south, on the slave and his master, than all the matters in debate, viz. that the slave has a soul, and needs the faithful preaching of the Gospel as much as his master, or those who so busily seek to accomplish his earthly emancipation. The utter extirpation of slavery was urged with a zeal which was often indiscreet, and opposed in the same temper, but meantime the eternal welfare of the negro seems to have been too much a matter of minor consideration. Indeed, the fact that many clergymen and warm religionists had been connected in some way with the opposition which we have previously noticed, rendered the ministers of religion suspected; and any attempt on their part, to pay any thing like marked attention to the religious instruction of the slaves, was met on the part of the owners by a decided refusal. This was particularly the case among the large slave holders of the low country.

We would not be understood as applying this remark to all: there were many exceptions. But we think, as a general remark, it will hold good. Nor would we lay the blame entirely at the door of the slave owners. We doubt not the church has been guilty of neglect. With the strong current of feeling which set directly against the work, it was no easy task to engage in it. Not only did it hold out no inducements of honor or ease, but, in addition to its hardships and privations, it required so much prudence and delicacy of management, that most were afraid to enter upon it. On this point we give an extract from the report of the Missionary Society of the South Carolina Conference, read in Columbia, South Carolina, February, 1830.

'Among all the rest, there is one class of missions which claims a peculiar notice, and a devout offering of grateful acknowledgment to the God of all grace, who hath sent his Gospel to be preached to the poor. We refer to the missions among the blacks. To this field of

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exertion we have long looked with the most anxious solicitude. saw the efforts made to send the Gospel to distant Pagans, and we heard of the success of those efforts with much gratification. But when,